Our Family

Joan and Tony Lawrence planted their first grapes at 45th Parallel Vineyard on the Pisa Flats just 6 km from Cromwell in 1997. Since then they have also developed Te Wairere Vineyard nearby in 2001 and by 2004 their son Brook and daughter-in-law Lucie had join them to work towards making the first vintage in their newly constructed winery as winemakers in 2006.

Joan’s background is in archaeology and she left her career as an archaeological illustrator at Auckland University to work on the vineyards and ultimately run the cellar door. Tony is an orthodontist and loves to be involved in every aspect of the wine business as well as running his orthodontic practice in Queenstown.

Their son Brook, trained as a winemaker in South Australia and after working in Australia, New Zealand and France came back with his wife Lucie in 2004. Brook met his future wife while they were both trainees at Domaine de l’Arlot in Nuit St Georges in Burgundy. Lucie is a third generation winemaker and trained as an oenologist at Dijon University, working vintages in Burgundy and Alsace. She is Aurum’s principal winemaker while Brook also looks after the viticultural management of the estate. They have two daughters Mathilde and Madeleine and our reserve wines are named for them.

Viticulture

From its beginnings in 1997 Aurum Wines has been committed to an environmentally aware philosophy. We constantly seek new ways to improve vineyard and winery practices to ensure an environmentally sustainable business. We believe we have a moral obligation to preserve our rural environment. We believe a continued focus on good environmental management is positive not only from a sustainability and good business point of view but will also help us create better wines. We value the soil in which our vines flourish and strive to preserve the environment in and around our vineyard, minimizing environmental impacts wherever possible.
This comes via Biogro Organic NZ certification. Organics is the defining philosophy of our vineyard management practice. We have adopted organic methods as part of our overall goal of achieving continuous improvements in the sustainability of our vineyard operations.

The glacial gravels, sands and silts of the Cromwell Valley are particularly suited to growing grape vines because of their low fertility and high mineral content. Brook Lawrence, as well as being one of our winemakers, is also the viticulturalist (he’s a busy boy!) and his canopy management regime includes shoot thinning and positioning, bunch thinning and ultimately hand harvesting. Soil organic matter is increased yearly by the use of mulching and return of composted winery waste. Biodiversity is encouraged in a largely monoculture by growing plants in the vineyard to attract beneficial insects and developing native plantings around the property.

Brook and Lucie’s winemaking is traditional with the use of wild yeasts naturally present in the winery and minimal intervention whenever possible. Our aim for the wines is to reflect the place and the vintage from which they came.

Gardens & Olive Grove

The gardens surrounding the Tasting Room is anchored with an enormous walnut tree and is packed with old fashioned roses and perennials. The spring garden features daffodils, hyacinths and tulips followed by a wide range of herbaceous peonies.

The olive grove is Joan’s passion and is made up of Tuscan varieties trees organically managed, handpicked and cold pressed to produce a fruity, spicy and grassy extra virgin olive oil.

Terrain

The Cromwell basin is surrounded by mountains; the Pisa Range, the Dunstan mountains and the Cairnmuir Range along with the huge Southern Alps to the west, all block rain to the valley. The annual rainfall is 200 – 400 mls per year.